Israel’s former President Moshe Katsav has been convicted of rape by a court in Tel Aviv and could go to jail.

He was found guilty of raping an employee in the 1990s when he was tourism minister and of later sexual offences while he was president.

The judges said they believed the evidence of the woman whose testimony had led to two charges of rape.

Moshe Katsav resigned from the largely ceremonial post of head of state in 2007 and was indicted in March 2009.

MOSHE KATSAV

Convicted of rape and sexual harassment, 2010

Born in Iran – first Israeli president to come from a Muslim country

Became Likud MP in 1977 at the age of 30

Married since 1969, with five children

While his resignation caused shock across Israel, it had limited political consequences.

Rape commands a jail term in Israel of at least four years, although Katsav is thought to be likely to contest the conviction in Israel’s supreme court.

State prosecutor Ronit Amiel said the verdict carried a message to other victims of abuse of power that they should not remain silent.

‘Riddled with lies’

The former president, 65, who was in office for seven years from 2000, had denied the charges, the most serious ever levelled against an Israeli head of state.

The Israeli media is describing this conviction as unprecedented in the democratic world.

Extraordinarily Moshe Katsav had previously withdrawn from a plea bargain which would have allowed him to avoid jail time. Now it appears certain that the former president will be sentenced to prison. The minimum sentence for rape in Israel is four years.

Some have suggested that Moshe Katsav’s trial is another sign of the rottenness at the heart of Israeli politics. The former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is currently facing corruption charges.

But others point out that the fact that even a former president is not above the law is a sign of the health of Israel’s democracy.

When he stepped down in 2007, he initially agreed to plead guilty to sexual misconduct and avoid more serious charges, but he withdrew the plea bargain the following year.

According to the indictment, the rape charges dated back to April 1998 when the former employee described as Woman A alleged he had first raped her at the tourism ministry office and later at a hotel in Jerusalem.

The further charges related to claims of sexual harassment of two women in 2003 and 2005 during his presidency.

Reading the verdict, Judge George Karra who presided over a panel with two other judges, said: “We believe the plaintiff [Woman A] because her testimony is supported by elements of evidence, and she told the truth.”

Katsav’s evidence, the judges decided, was “riddled with lies”.

Although members of his family were with him in court, his wife Gila was not. He appeared to be visibly distraught as the verdict was read out and one of his sons was heard saying repeatedly “it’s not true”.

Sentencing is expected to take place next month and before the former president left court, he was told to surrender his passport.

Katsav, president for seven years until 2007, had rejected a plea bargain

His son, Boaz, told reporters the family would fight on to prove his innocence. “We will continue to walk with our heads high, so all the nation throughout its generations, with God’s help, will know that father, the eighth president of the State of Israel, is innocent.”

‘Lynching’

Moshe Katsav was born in Iran and emigrated at the age of six to Israel with his family in 1951. He joined the right-wing Likud party and held a number of ministerial posts before becoming president.

The allegations against him first surfaced in 2006 and led to him stepping down the following year, to be replaced by current President Shimon Peres.

After his indictment, he gave a televised news conference claiming he was the “victim of a lynching” organised by then-Attorney General Menahem Mazuz.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it was a “sad day for the State of Israel and its citizens” but added that the trial was a sign of strength of the country’s judicial system.

“Today the court conveyed two clear-cut messages, that all are equal before the law and that every woman has exclusive rights to her body,” he said.

Women’s groups in Israel have welcomed the verdict, arguing that allegations of sexual harassment are too often ignored.

Geraldine Doyle, 86, who as a 17-year-old factory worker became the inspiration for a popular World War II recruitment poster that evoked female power and independence under the slogan “We Can Do It!,” died Dec. 26 at a hospice in Lansing, Mich.

Her daughter, Stephanie Gregg, said the cause of death was complications from severe arthritis.

For millions of Americans throughout the decades since World War II, the stunning brunette in the red and white polka-dot bandanna was Rosie the Riveter.

Rosie’s rolled-up sleeves and flexed right arm came to represent the newfound strength of the 18 million women who worked during the war and later made her a figure of the feminist movement.

But the woman in the patriotic poster was never named Rosie, nor was she a riveter. All along it was Mrs. Doyle, who after graduating from high school in Ann Arbor, Mich., took a job at a metal factory, her family said.

One day, a photographer representing United Press International came to her factory and captured Mrs. Doyle leaning over a piece of machinery and wearing a red and white polka-dot bandanna over her hair.

In early 1942, the Westinghouse Corp. commissioned artist J. Howard Miller to produce several morale-boosting posters to be displayed inside its buildings. The project was funded by the government as a way to motivate workers and perhaps recruit new ones for the war effort.

Smitten with the UPI photo, Miller reportedly was said to have decided to base one of his posters on the anonymous, slender metal worker – Mrs. Doyle.

For four decades, this fact escaped Mrs. Doyle, who shortly after the photo was taken left her job at the factory. She barely lasted two weeks.

A cellist, Mrs. Doyle was horrified to learn that a previous worker at the factory had badly injured her hands working at the machines. She found safer employment at a soda fountain and bookshop in Ann Arbor, where she wooed a young dental school student and later became his wife.

In 1984, Mrs. Doyle and her family came across an article in Modern Maturity magazine, a former AARP publication, that connected her UPI photo with Miller’s wartime poster.

The artist did take some liberties with Mrs. Doyle’s physique, her family said.

“She didn’t have those big muscles,” said her daughter Stephanie Gregg of Eaton Rapids, Mich. “She was busy playing cello.”

The “We Can Do It!” poster was scheduled to be displayed in Westinghouse facilities for only two weeks in February 1942. As time passed, however, it took on a whole new life.

In the early 1940s, Redd Evans and John Jacob Loeb composed the song “Rosie the Riveter.”

Simple lyrics helped the tune become a rotation staple on radio stations coast-to-coast: “All day long whether rain or shine, she’s part of the assembly line. She’s making history, working for victory, Rosie the Riveter.”

After the song had become popular, the May 29, 1943, edition of the Saturday Evening Post cover featured a Norman Rockwell illustration of a muscular, red-headed riveter with the name Rosie painted on her lunch pail.

From then on, many people began to associate the hardworking female factory employee with the name “Rosie,” and so the title stuck to Miller’s poster.

Several women claimed to be the “real” Rosie the Riveter, including Rose Monroe, an aircraft parts worker who appeared in a propaganda film promoting war bonds.

In the decades since the poster’s creation, the image has evolved into a pop culture reference that generated scores of imitations.

There’s a saying that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. But being thin is the standard of beauty nowadays most especially if you are in the modeling and fashion world. Isabelle Caro, the controversial French model who became famous after appearing in a controversial ad campaign tagged as “No Anorexia” was recently reported dead by her family.

The campaign below for Anorexia was paid for by Italian clothing company Flash & Partners to publicize a fashion brand for young women called Nolita and the photograph was taken by Italian photographer Oliviero Toscani. Flash & Partners said in a statement that Toscani’s aim was “to use the naked body to show everyone the reality of this illness, caused in most cases by the stereotypes imposed by the world of fashion”.

Isabelle Caro Anorexia Ad Campaign Photo

Accordingly, Isabelle Caro suffered from severe anorexia nervosa since she was 13 years old. Her anorexia was caused by what she called a difficult childhood. She said: “I had a very complicated childhood, very difficult, very painful. My mother’s big phobia was that I would grow. She spent her time measuring my height. She wouldn’t let me go outside because she’d heard that fresh air makes children grow, and that’s why I was kept at home. It was completely traumatic.”

Below are some of Isabelle Caro’s Photos before and after Anorexia Nervosa. Compare and you will be shocked:

Avi Cohen, one of the greatest soccer Israeli soccer players of all time, died at Tel Aviv’s Sourasky Medical Center overnight Wednesday at the age of 54.

Cohen, the former captain of Israel’s national team, was critically wounded last week when a commercial vehicle hit his moped near Ramat Gan’s financial district. Physicians declared Cohen brain dead on Tuesday, but his family, at the advice of a number of rabbis, decided not to disconnect him from life support. His heart stopped beating in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

Since Cohen was admitted last week, dozens of soccer players, coaches, friends and fans flocked to the hospital.

The license of the driver who hit Cohen has been suspended for 60 days. He told police that he did not veer from his lane and that Cohen apparently rammed into the rear-view mirror of his vehicle.

Over the past few years Cohen served as the head of the Israeli soccer players’ association. The sweeper began his career with Maccabi Tel Aviv, and in 1979 he was transferred to Liverpool FC, which at the time was one of the best teams in the world.

While playing for the English powerhouse Cohen won a league championship and a European championship. After another stint with Maccabi TA, Cohen joined Glasgow Rangers in 1987, but he returned to Maccabi in 1989.

The casket containing Cohen’s body will be on display at Ramat Gan Stadium beginning at 11:30 am. The funeral will be held at 2 pm at the Ramat Hasharon cemetery.

The American economist credited with bringing about lower fares for airline passengers has died at the age of 93.

Alfred E Kahn was best known as the architect of airline deregulation in the United States, a process that started during President Carter’s administration in the late 1970s.

However, it also led to financial problems for some established airlines.

Alfred E Kahn was for many years a professor of economics at Cornell University in New York State.

He believed passionately that the managements of public utilities should make their own decisions about prices and levels of services free from interference by governments and bureaucrats.

He was instrumental in garnering the support needed to push through the US Airline Deregulation act of 1978 during the Carter administration.

The Act stripped away an elaborate 40-year-old system of controls that meant all decisions by airlines on ticket prices and routes were subject to approval by a government agency.

Deregulation rapidly led to massive cuts in air fares, along with wholesale and sometimes painful reorganisation of the US airline industry.

Some famous names in American aviation, such as Pan Am, disappeared entirely as they failed to adapt to the new era.

Others, such as United and American, went through repeated bankruptcies as they struggled to bring costs down. Meanwhile, salaries and benefits for staff at established carriers were seriously eroded.

Professor Kahn is widely seen as the architect of low cost airlines. His reforms made it possible for budget airlines in the US, such as Southwest and Jetblue, to offer no-frills service at massively lower prices than traditional carriers.

This model has been widely copied elsewhere in the world, with the new generation no-frills low-price carriers now entrenched in Europe and Asia, as well as the US.

The contest between the two top teams in the world is heating up, and some of it is boiling over, with Paul Harris alleging that “it must have been something personal [said by Sreesanth] for Graeme Smith to react the way he did”.

The incident Harris talked about was when Smith was seen pointing his bat at Sreesanth, and sharing stern words.

It came three balls after Sreesanth had hit Smith on the finger with a sharp delivery, and there seemed to have been words exchanged then.

Harris, however, made the allegation in the good faith that Smith doesn’t react on the field unless a personal comment is made to him.

“For Grame to act the way he did – we all know Graeme really well – he doesn’t react to situations like that,” Harris said.

“If it was personal – and I have heard it was – I think we should cut that out of the game.

“I know Sreesanth has said a few personal things on the field, which is not great and we don’t condone that.

If he wants to do that, he can do that.

It must have been something personal for Graeme to react the way he did.” This was not the first time that words had been exchanged in this series.

It was not even the first time on this particular day, for that matter.

When Zaheer Khan came out to bat and swung and missed twice, Lonwabo Tsotsobe and Smith were in his ear.

When Ishant Sharma got out, the umpires were not sure he had done so to a legitimate delivery, and Ishant waited next to the South African huddle for the third umpire to relay his verdict.

There were words spoken then too, and Ishant was seen turning back and responding to what looked like a verbal send-off.

VVS Laxman was quick to mention the earlier incidents when the Smith-Sreesanth run-in was brought up, but also sought to play things down.

“I am not sure what happened but saying that, it’s a series between two top teams,” he said.

“In a keen tussle like that, it is bound to happen.

It’s not only when Sreesanth said something to Smith, but even their bowlers came at us hard.

It’s bound to happen because both the teams want to win this game badly.

[These things happen] when the intensity at which the game is played is high.” Harris seemed to be in agreement with the intensity, but repeated the bit about getting personal.

“The game has been played in very good spirit,” he said.

“It’s No.

1 v No.

2.

Every now and then it will boil over, it’s Test cricket.

That’s what people want to see.

Even we want to see it played hard on the field, but not getting personal.

Indian bowlers were right on track with speedster Zaheer Khan coming into action at the right time, getting Mark Boucher out. The South African tail was exposed to the Indian battery in the first session of play itself, putting them within touching distance of a historic win.

Prior to this, Harbhajan Singh had sent tremors down the South African dressing room as he claimed AB de Villiers before he could offer any resistance to the Indian charge. With half of the South African team back into the pavilion, India sniffed victory on the penultimate day of the Test while the home team desperately looked for a big partnership that would save the match.

This came after Sreesanth spit fire at the South African resistance to get the most dangerous man in their squad, Jacques Kallis (17), out cheaply with a brilliant delivery. The fall saw the morning session tilt slightly in India’s favour with four wickets in their bag.

Weather gods had the final say on Day 3 of the Durban Test as the South African scorecard read 111/3 at stumps due to bad light. Needing 192 more runs to win, the duo of AB de Villiers and Jacques Kallis held fort and would have hoped to start the penultimate day of the Test without losing their wickets cheaply. However, the visitors had other plans, with the aim of levelling the series and retaining their supremacy in Tests.

In the last session of play on Tuesday, Sreesanth had come up with his second wicket of the innings to send the SA top-order packing. He claimed the crucial wicket of danger man Hashim Amla for a paltry 16 and with the third wicket’s fall, Indian camp had an understandable bounce in their step.

Earlier, Alviro Petersen could not continue for long in front of a disciplined Indian bowling battery and succumbed to Harbhajan Singh at a score of 26 runs. The fall of the second wicket opened the floodgates for Proteas top order and the Indians were offered a window of opportunity to seal the second Test.

Sreesanth drew first blood in the final innings, claiming South African captain Graeme Smith (37), bringing an end to a solid first wicket stand. The partnership gave the home team an upper hand in the early proceedings with two days of the match to spare.

The strike came just before tea time on Day 3, resulting in the South African scorecard reading 70/1 with Petersen giving company to Hashim Amla.

Yesterday, it was heartbreak for VVS Laxman as he was the last man to fall just at the brink of a well deserved century (96) as an outside edge flew into the hands of Mark Boucher, ending the Indian innings at 228 runs.